heodore would not do. He would not, as he
said, fellowship with Jerry, Armida's husband. "Tell you, Armidy," he
would say, "I can't put up with a man like him."

"Some folks call you shif'less, Theodore," Armida retorted with
bitterness.

"Well, I am," he allowed; "but the difference is--I'm lazy, but work,
my fashion; but he's lazy, and don't work at all."

Though he disdained Jerry, he would rather do his tasks than see
Armida's interests suffer; and when he was not occupied with his still
or peddling, he busied himself on her side of the farm. Lucas would
at any time give him a helping hand rather than see Theodore hurt
himself, and so Armida's fences were mended and sundry repairs on her
barns and out-houses made. Lucas was still as stiff as ever, and the
help given was always to oblige Theodore, who laughed to himself but
said nothing.

He once attempted to wheedle Lucas into painting at least all of the
front of the house, but Lucas was not to be moved. Disappointed in
that, Theodore brought home a pot of yellow paint when returning from
his next expedition, and painted his sister's half of the kitchen
floor, in spite of her remonstrating that Lucas wouldn't like it,
though she acknowledged it looked pretty, and in spite of Lucas's
vexation at finding the room ridiculous.

"No more ridiculous than it was before," Theodore assured him; "it
couldn't be. Besides," he added, as an afterthought, "I'll bring it
plumb up to the middle, and neither of you will be trespassin' on the
other's side. I noticed one of your chairs was a leetle grain onto
Armidy's side the other night, and that ain't right."

In the middle of an afternoon, as Lucas was ploughing out his corn,
he heard a "Hello!" to which, when it had been two or three times
repeated, he replied, though without looking around. Presently he
heard some one coming, in a sort of scuffling run, and breathing
heavily, and looked over his shoulder to see Theodore, who dropped
into a walk as he spied him, and gasped: "Lucas! Say! Stop! Look
here!"

"Well?" said Lucas, and pulled up his horse.

"I'm too old to run like this, that's a fact," said Theodore, mopping
his face and leaning up against the plough. "There's a queer piece of
work for us to do, Lucas. Armidy's all smashed up on the road, right
down here on that second dip, and I guess Jerry is stone dead, and we
must fetch 'em up just as soon as we can."

Lucas made no comment, but mechanically unfastened